The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemns the US-backed aggression on Yemen, in a statement released March 29, expressing concern about the implications of these developments and their inherent risks at all levels.

The PFLP emphasizes:
1. its condemnation of the US-backed aggression on Yemen, rejecting any interference in its internal affairs.
2. the adoption of dialogue as a means to resolve internal issues and for a path of democratic and peaceful change determined by the Yemeni people.
3. that it is the duty of the Arab nation and the Arab League to instead assist Yemen to resolve the crisis in order to achieve the aspirations of the Yemeni people for democratic governance, protect the freedoms of all, and protect them from sectarian or tribal conflict.

Speaking in Ramallah at a mass rally commemorating Martyr’s Day, Comrade Khalida Jarrar said that the Front salutes the Arab people of Yemen, calling for their steadfastness and victory against this criminal US-backed war in the Gulf.

“The people in the end will prevail, and Yemen will defeat the invaders,” she said.

Zahar: We have developed the resistance and The West Bank is our strategic element to liberate Palestine.

Mohammed Al Hindi and Mahmoud Zahar

Hamas Political Bureau member Mahmoud Al Zahar told a joint Hamas-Islamic Jihad political meeting in Salahuddin Alayoubi Mousque in Gaza last weekend that the resistance has worked on the development of its arms to confront the Zionist occupation, and it will never hand them over to anyone, near or far.

He confirmed that they consider the West Bank an essential strategic element in the liberation of Palestine, and called on its people not to pursue the security coordination program which damages their resistance.

His statements were made together with leader of Islamic Jihad Mohammed Al Hindi to members of both movements during a political meeting to review the latest developments in the Palestinian arena.

Al Zahar noted that the resistance is a target of the occupation both outside and inside of Palestine, referring to the Palestinian authority’s project of security coordination with the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian resistance.

Confirming that the relationship between Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements is solid, Al Zahar pointed out that it even extends beyond the borders, as shown by the victory of the Ala’sf Alm’akool battle, the Palestinian resistance’ name for last summer’s Israeli offensive against Gaza.

He described how the cooperation between the two movements covers many areas: military, student, women and security issues. He emphasised that they must also increase relations with other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, but only insofar as it does not harm the resistance.

“The time is coming when the factions are going to have to re-shuffle the cards of resistance to liberate Palestine,” he said.

Islamic Jihad member Mohammed Al Hindi spoke about the owners of the settlement project counting on Herzog and Tzipi Livni. He confirmed that both Herzog and Livni will never oppose Jerusalem as ‘their’ capital or the Judaism of the state.

“They are part of a new illusion, and they expect to market this new illusion here,” he said.

Al Hindi called on the ‘owners’ of Oslo to confess, to be frank and tell the people that Oslo has reached an impasse, that it is nothing more than a big illusion.

“They have to resign and make way for the new generation and the resistance factions to rule Palestine,” Al Hindi insisted.

“We are working to build the resistance, to raise the nation and to be the liberators of Palestine, all of Palestine,” he concluded.

Mahmoud Habbash, the outspoken aid of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has always been a divisive voice at the Palestinian political arena ever since he fled Gaza seven years ago.

Almost every Friday, he gives a virulent sermon at the small mosque at the PA headquarters in Ramallah, during which he emits all his bile and vindictiveness on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance group.

Needless to say, this is not how the dignified Friday pulpit should be used. The Friday sermon should be an occasion for fostering hope and unity among Muslims. It shouldn’t be used as a divisive tool to spread disunity, tumult and hatred.

However, it has been repeatedly noted that Habbash, who was PA Minister of Religious Affairs for years, was the one who violated these rules.

This is really symptomatic of a deep dichotomy between what the PA says and what it does.

Bomb Gaza!!!

From examining his sermons in Ramallah and elsewhere, it is clear that the man is either ignorant in religious knowledge or hypocrite or both. He also seems to be a sycophantic hanger-on revolving in Mahmoud Abbas’s orbit, often sacrificing honesty and truth for the sake of pleasing his master.

For example, in his sermon on 20 March at the Tashrifat mosque in Ramallah, he compared Abbas’s political opponents with the hypocrites of Quraysh in the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

This is a cheap manipulation of the Friday sermon. Indeed, comparing a secular leader with virtually no Islamic credentials to the greatest man ever to walk on the face of earth goes beyond the pale. At the end of the day, ignorant and hypocritical speakers must not be allowed to corrupt the Islamic religious discourse.

The latest scandal coming out of this man’s mouth was a call on Arab states to send their warplanes to bomb Gaza, effectively to destroy what was not destroyed in the Israeli blitzkrieg against the coastal enclave in summer.

“Arab states have a duty to strike those who have violated legitimacy with an iron fist, regardless of the place, time or circumstances, beginning with Palestine,” Habbash was quoted as saying during the Friday sermon he delivered in Ramallah.

He added, “What happened in Gaza was a coup, not a division, and it must be addressed with firmness. There can be no dialogue with coup-makers; they must be hit with an iron fist”.

Habbash is absolutely wrong

We may not agree with Hamas on everything it says and does. But the claim that Hamas carried out a coup against the PA is exactly the antithesis of truth. The well documented reality is that Hamas acted preemptively against a coup attempt by forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas after the Islamist group unexpectedly won legislative elections the previous year.

That coup, led by former Fatah strongman in Gaza, Muhammad Dahlan, was secretly coordinated with Israel and the Bush administration. The full story of that conspiracy was revealed several years ago by the American magazine Vanity Fair.

Living in the West Bank, I know it is politically incorrect to say the truth in this regard. The PA, we all know, doesn’t tolerate serious dissent, which explains the recent sweeping arrests of political opponents.

But honesty must always come first. And if one is to be truly faithful to his or her conscience, one must dismiss Habbash’s ranting as totally worthless and mendacious.

I have spoken to several Palestinian pundits who unanimously denounced Habbash’s remarks.

I am not going to name anyone lest they be harmed by the PA security agencies.

However, there are many other honest people, intellectuals and otherwise, who have come strongly against this venomous incitement by this irresponsible sheikh-turned-propagandist who obviously doesn’t mind lying in order to malign political opponents and besmirch their image.

According to the Electronic Intifada, Dr. Rami Abdu, Chairperson of the independent group Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights (euromid.org), suggested that Habbash was trying to perpetuate the Gaza problem for personal gains.

“I believe that Habbash is part of a group that tries to perpetuate Gaza’s suffering and which have no problem letting fellow Palestinians suffer for their own benefit.”

In fact, Abdu’s words may well be a huge understatement of Habbash’s role, which could be much worse than we think.

In the final analysis, it is an expression of treason for a Palestinian leader to ask foreigners to bomb his fellow Palestinians. Were Habbash a loyal son of Palestine, he would have called on Arabs to bomb the occupiers of his country, tormentors of his people and usurpers of al-Masjidul Aqsa, the Muslim’s first Qibla (direction which Muslims face in prayers) and Third of most sacred mosques in Islam.

Israel hates Hamas and seeks its annihilation. Habbash apparently wants the same. The conclusion is clear. I rest my case.

Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist living in occupied Palestine.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Gaza Strip organized a rally in solidarity with Venezuela, in defense of Venezuela against the U.S. imperialist targeting of Venezuela’s Bolivarian project, in particular a recent decree by the U.S. administration imposing new economic sanctions on Venezuela and labeling the country a “national security threat” to the United States, a move that is a clear threat of escalated U.S. intervention against Venezuela and its elected government.

A large crowd of comrades and representatives of popular organizations participated in the protest, carrying Venezuelan and Palestinian flags and posters of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, and the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, and slogans demanding an end to US threats against Venezuela.

Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP and leader of its branch in Gaza, spoke at the event, conveying the greetings and solidarity of the PFLP, its imprisoned leader, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, and the Palestinian and Arab people to the people of Venezuela.

“We stand today in Gaza City in solidarity with one of the most important centers of socialist development in the world, the descendants and heirs of the independence leader Simon Bolivar, and of the late comrade Hugo Chavez, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its revolution.,” said Mizher, who noted that the escalating threats against the Bolivarian Republic are not different from the ongoing fascist Zionist attacks on the Palestinian people, and that both are integral parts of the U.S. imperialist/Zionist plans to suppress the rights of the peoples of the world to self-determination, sovereignty and independence.

Mizher noted that the people and the government of Venezuela have strongly supported the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause and have clearly condemned Zionist criminality, and that the Palestinian people and in particular the PFLP, pledge to stand by Venezuela and confront the brutal threats of imperialism and defend dignity and freedom.

The recent U.S. threats against the Bolivarian Republic and President Maduro only reconfirm the correctness of Venezuela’s approach, gazavenez10continuing the path of the late Hugo Chavez, both on the domestic level – adopting comprehensive plans for economic development, social justice, popular participation, and ending domination, tyranny and corruption – and on the international level, through establishing a clear anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist policy in support of the rights of the peoples of the world, said Mizher.

Mizher also noted the comprehensive rejection across Latin America of the U.S. plans, in particular the response from the emergency meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, demanding the U.S. step back from tis threats against Venezuela, as well as the response of Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Raul Castro of Cuba. “This wide solidarity with Venezuela confirms that Venezuela is not alone in this battle,” said Mizher. “These threats are not solely an aggression against Venezuela, but also against these countries.” He urged global action and organizing to resist these threats and reject imperialist globalization meant to undermine the freedom of peoples and their right to self-determination.

Louis Daniel Lugo, the Venezuelan ambassador to Palestine, spoke via telephone, saluting the organizers participating in the event and the PFLP. “Venezuela is not a threat, but in fact a state of security for people who are suffering and the struggling peoples of the world, particularly in Latin America. It is determined to reject any plans for coups or interventions to impose a situation like the fate of Iraq, Syria, Panama and other countries.”

On March 2, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters made a ruling that Hamas was a terrorist organization. This decision came after a similar ruling by the same court labeling Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, a terrorist organization. This decision and other post-coup Egyptian policies towards Hamas pose an important question: Is Hamas really a terrorist organization?

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was founded in the late 1980s by a group of Palestinian activists. The Movement emerged in conjunction with the outbreak of the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987. The Intifada started on December 8, 1987 and Hamas released its first Press Statement on December 14, 1987.

The establishment of Hamas came at a time when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was starting to lean towards diplomatic means of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, the establishment of Hamas ran parallel with the will of the Palestinian people to maintain armed struggle as one of their effective resistance strategies. Hamas made it clear, from day one, that armed struggle was a right for occupied people guaranteed by all relevant international laws and norms.

The Movement continuously reiterated that it will continue to pursue this strategy along with other resistance means in order to liberate Palestine.

Although Hamas was very affirmative in pursuing armed struggle, the Movement was not the first to resort to such a strategy neither was it the lone Palestinian faction to adopt it. Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) founded in 1959 was among the first to resort to armed struggle in the Palestinian arena. Fatah was joined by other nationalist, leftist and Islamist movements in adopting armed struggle against Israeli occupation. This was also the strategy adopted by earlier Palestinian and Arab groups in countering the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948.
In spite of the fact that most Palestinian factions adopted the same strategies, the Egyptian court listed only Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Interestingly, Egypt itself used, among others, armed struggle in its successive revolutions against the British colonization in the first half of the twentieth century. Was this Egyptian resistance terrorist as well? And is the current Egyptian government planning to disown its national history and rewrite school syllabuses to suit its current definition of terrorism?

One of the main pretexts used by the current Egyptian government in its aggressive policies towards Hamas and the Gaza Strip in general is that Hamas was, reportedly, involved in the internal Egyptian affairs. This claim is usually based on the assumption that since Hamas adheres to the Muslim Brotherhood ideology then it must be interfering in domestic Egyptian affairs in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. Let’s ignore here the fact that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was the democratically elected government of Egypt before the army generals brought down its rule, and let’s not highlight the moderate nature of the MB’s ideology. The main refutation of the Egyptian government claims is that there has been no single proof of a Palestinian or a Hamas involvement in any domestic Egyptian affair.

Hamas has repeatedly announced its willingness to cooperate with any Egyptian security agency or commission to investigate the Egyptian claims but was never allowed. The Movement also cited its clean record in all other countries where it has never interfered in domestic affairs. The Movement has also highlighted its policy of not targeting any Israeli target outside of the occupied Palestinian land. So how can a Movement so restrained to resisting occupation inside its land be accused of wasting its time and efforts in meddling in other countries affairs?!

Following up the internal economic, political and security situation in Egypt leads to the conclusion that the Egyptian government was in dire need of a supposedly “weak” enemy to export its failures and internal problems and blame that “enemy” for the government’s inability to maintain security and stability in the country.

In order to cover for its failures, the Egyptian government has waged a media campaign against almost all its neighboring countries. Gaza and Libya got the lion’s share of the Egyptian blame and mongering. Mainstream Egyptian media called months ago for Egyptian military attacks on Gaza and Libya. This call was answered weeks ago, when the Egyptian air-force bombarded Libyan cities in response for the brutal killing of dozens of Egyptian Copts in Libya. The timing and approach used by the Egyptian government in handling this crime pose questions on the real intents of its intervention in Libya, given that its Libyan backed Haftar military coup failed to take over the Libyan state.

In Gaza, Egypt has made the life of Gazans impossible by its almost continuous closure of the Rafah Crossing (the only Gazan way to the outside world). The Egyptian government continues to collectively punish 1.8 million Palestinians living in the Strip. Assuming that Hamas membership in Gaza could reach one million (of course this is an absolute exaggeration of the number!), why are the other 800,000 Palestinians living in the Strip being blockaded and humiliated?!

Since the year 2007, over 300 Gazan Palestinians died at the Rafah Crossing due to lack of medical treatment and supplies. As of today Egypt continues to violate relevant international laws by closing down the Rafah Crossing most of the days of the year.

Hamas was elected in 2006 in a transparent democratic election, where it gained 64% of the seats, and therefore it represents the majority of the Palestinian people (or at least those who elected it). Hence, it is a mere disrespect to the Palestinian people to list their elected representative as a terrorist organization. It is also an utter disrespect for the friends and allies of the Palestinian national movement to see their friend being listed as a terrorist organization in a fellow Arab Muslim government.

Hamas is one of the main Palestinian resistance movements that inspire the hope of the Palestinian people to see their country free and independent. What Palestinians expect from their fellow friends worldwide is to see their bold support for Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Listing Hamas as a terrorist organization is seen by most Palestinians as nothing short of backstabbing of their struggle!

Muslim Imran is the director of the Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

The United Nations 59th Session of the Commission on Legal and Social Status of Women today adopted a resolution of support for Palestinian women, with Israel and the United States the only countries voting against it.

The document was approved at the closing the annual two-week forum which reviewed the progress and challenges of gender equality and empowerment of women 20 years after the Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action.

The initiative, supported by 27 countries, with 13 abstentions and above-mentioned two votes against, reasserts that the Israeli occupation remains the main obstacle to the advancement and self-reliance of Palestinian women as well as for integration in the development of their society.

In addition, Tel Aviv still does not accord full respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Regulations annexed to the 4th Convention of the Hague Convention, the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and other global instruments protecting the rights of women.

The text adopted by the 45-member body responsible for promoting gender equality also calls upon the Israeli occupying power to facilitate the return of all Palestinian refugee women,children and displaced people to their homes.

In another article, the resolution calls on the international community, particularly Arab women, to assist them in dealing with the humanitarian crisis and the immense needs of reconstruction and recovery in the devastated Gaza Strip.

Last summer Gaza suffered 50 days of air strikes and ground incursions from troops from Tel Aviv in assaults that claimed the lives of hundreds of women.

In regard to peace and the two state solution, the Commission requested the world community renew efforts to achieve these goals.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated that the results of the Israeli election simply reflect the nature and structure of the racist, fascist Zionist society that produced these results and elected the Likud Party and its right-wing allies, who engaged in the most open and extreme anti-Palestinian attacks on our people and their rights throughout the campaign.

The growth of overt extremism and racism in the Zionist society and the climate of fascism is only fueled by the failure of Palestinian and Arab officialdom to confront the occupation state, as well as the international imperialist powers who provide cover for its crimes and rampant violations of international law and preserve its immunity and impunity from accountability or prosecution.

The Front emphasized that confronting Zionist extremism and responding to these elections requires a clear and decisive Palestinian policy that casts aside the illusions of reliance on futile negotiations, and instead builds a unified national strategy to confront the enemy and struggle for the full rights of oue people, based on our strategic path of resistance to build on all achievements.

The Front demanded the immediate implementation of the Palestinian Central Council resolutions passed at its last session, to disengage with the occupation state and its officials, first and foremost, ending security coordination and rejecting the path of the Oslo Accords which have been so destructive for the Palestinian people, and to end the Palestinian internal division through a serious project of national unity based on a unified program and the rebuilding of the PLO through elected, democratic institutions embracing all Palestinian forces, and following up to seek prosecution of the leaders of the Zionist state in the International Criminal Court.

]]>http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/03/pflp-results-of-zionist-elections-simply-reflect-racist-nature-of-the-state/feed/0PFLP stands in solidarity with Venezuela against US sanctions and threatshttp://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/03/pflp-stands-in-solidarity-with-venezuela-against-us-sanctions-and-threats/
http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/03/pflp-stands-in-solidarity-with-venezuela-against-us-sanctions-and-threats/#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2015 19:42:51 +0000http://gaza.scoop.ps/?p=3700PRESS RELEASE
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expressed its full solidarity with Venezuela in confronting US sanctions aimed at overthrowing the democratic Bolivarian government of Venezuela and undermining the will of its people, who have continually resisted US capitalism and imperialism.

The US is making clear its ongoing and continuous policy seeking to return Venezuela under the boot of US imperialism and the dictates of US policy, as was the case in the past before the Bolivarian Revolution and the election of the late President Hugo Chavez. The Front expressed its solidarity with the people of Venezuela, the government and the President, Nicolas Maduro, in continuing to resist such attempts to undermine the future of Venezuela’s popular development.

Comrade Kayed al-Ghoul, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, urged all progressive and democratic movements in the world to stand with Venezuela, noting the mass support of the people – and governments – of Latin America for Venezuela’s self-determination and sovereignty, rejecting and resisting the US attempt to isolate the Bolivarian Republic for its leading role in Latin America and the world in rejecting US imperialism.

Al-Ghoul added that the Front is confident that Venezuela will continue to be a thorn in the side of US capitalism and global hegemony, and a country and people who consistently stand by the side of the Palestinian people and all peoples who stand for liberation and resistance to US imperialism, which pursues global policies of plunder, exploitation, underdevelopment, occupation, war and subjugation against the peoples and oppressed nations of the world in order to further its interests.

The lingering loss, sadness and pain are all too obvious – despite their attempts at cheer there is little for women to celebrate in a Gaza still devastated by the Israeli offensive six months ago. Almost every one of these women and girls lost a mother, a sister, a daughter, a cousin, an aunt, a grandmother, a niece, a grandaughter, a friend – and almost every one of them is struggling to survive under a crippling – and illegal – blockade. But surviving they are.

Tawfiq Abu Rayyala, 25, was shot with a bullet in the abdomen and was transferred to hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.

Two brothers identified as Jihad, 22, and Wahid Kaskin, 23, were forced to swim toward an Israeli naval boat, where they were detained and taken to an unknown destination.

Israeli naval boats routinely open fire on Palestinian fishermen sailing within the six-nautical-miles zone and farmlands along the border, flagrantly violating the ceasefire deal.

Israel and the Palestinian factions inked a ceasefire deal on August 26, ending the latest deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza that claimed the lives of over 2,200 people, overwhelmingly civilians.

The ceasefire deal stipulated that Israel would immediately ease the blockade imposed on the strip and expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually.

Israel has however failed to do so, repeatedly violating the ceasefire deal through opening fire on Palestinian fishermen within the fishing zone and reducing their intake.

Continuing the Cairo-brokered talks on the other key issues was repeatedly postponed in the wake of November attacks against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.

Israel has imposed a tightened blockade since 2007 after Hamas won the democratic legislative elections and took over power in the strip.

The current six-nautical-mile fishing zone falls drastically short of the twenty nautical miles allocated to Palestinian fishermen in the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights reported Thursday that Israel had committed 78 violations in the border areas and off the coast of the Gaza Strip since it reached a ceasefire deal with the Palestinians in August last year.

In a statement, al-Mezan center said that two Gazans were killed, while 52 others were injured by Israeli gunfire during the five past months. 49 arrests were also reported during the same period.

Since September 2014, the Israeli occupation forces along the border with Gaza opened their machinegun fire 29 times, killing two citizens and injuring 35 others including nine children.

As for the Israeli Navy’s violations, the center stated that 49 fishermen were detained, 17 others were injured, while 12 fishing boats were confiscated.

The latest of the Israeli navy’s attacks occurred on Thursday when its forces opened machinegun fire at fishermen as they were working off the coast of al-Sudaniya area and wounded two of them, identified as Eid Mohsen and Ziyad Fahed.

During the attack, the naval forces confiscated a boat belonging to fisherman Mahmoud Zaidan and detained three others on board.

The center strongly condemned the escalating Israeli military violations that deprive Gaza civilians of their right to live and earn their livelihood.

Al-Mezan called on international community to shoulder its legal and moral obligations towards the Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories and to take legal action against those involved in gross violations of the humanitarian international law.

Six months have passed since a ceasefire on 26 August 2014 ended over seven weeks of fighting between Israeli
forces and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip. As UN agencies and international NGOs operating in Gaza, we are alarmed by the limited progress in rebuilding the lives of those affected and tackling the root causes of the conflict.

The Israeli-imposed blockade continues, the political process, along with the economy, are paralyzed, and living conditions have worsened.

Reconstruction and repairs to the tens of thousands of homes, hospitals, and schools damaged or destroyed in the fighting has been woefully slow. Sporadic rocket fire from Palestinian armed groups has resumed. Overall, the lack of progress has deepened levels of desperation and frustration among the population, more than two
thirds of whom are Palestine refugees.

Living conditions in Gaza were already dire before the latest round of fighting. Most residents were unable to meet their food requirements and over seven years of blockade had severely compromised access to basic services, including to health, water and sanitation.

But since July, the situation has deteriorated dramatically.

Approximately 100,000 Palestinians remain displaced this winter, living in dire conditions in schools and makeshift shelters not designed for long-term stay. Scheduled power cuts persist for up to 18 hours a day. The continued non-payment of the salaries of public sector employees and the lack of progress in the national unity government further increases tensions. With severe restrictions on movement, most of the 1.8 million residents are trapped in the coastal enclave, with no hope for the future.

Bearing the brunt of this suffering are the most vulnerable, including the elderly, persons with disabilities, women and nearly one million children, who have experienced unimaginable suffering in three major conflicts in six short years. Children lack access to quality education, with over 400,000 of them in need of immediate psychosocial support.

Within this context, the international community is not providing Gaza with adequate assistance. Little of the US$ 5.4 billion pledged in Cairo has reached Gaza. Cash assistance to families who lost everything has been suspended and other crucial aid is unavailable due to lack of funds. A return to hostilities is inevitable if progress is not made and the root causes of conflict are not addressed.

Israel, as the occupying power, is the main duty bearer and must comply with its obligations under international law.

In particular, it must fully lift the blockade, within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 1860 (2009).

The fragile ceasefire must be reinforced, and the parties must resume negotiations to achieve a comprehensive
settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. All parties must respect international law and those responsible for
violations must be brought to justice. Accountability and adherence to international humanitarian law and
international human rights law are essential pre-requisites for any lasting peace.

Also imperative, Egypt needs to open the Rafah Crossing, most urgently for humanitarian cases, and donor pledges must be translated into disbursements.

We must not fail in Gaza. We must realize the vision of making Gaza a livable place and a cornerstone of
peace and security for all in the region.

“The signing of this gas deal is a treacherous stab in the back and a disgrace to the Palestinian people and their growing movement to boycott the Zionist occupation. It is an unforgivable crime and a manifestation of financial corruption, the waste of public money, and the squandering of the capabilities of the Palestinian people,” said Comrade Ahmad Abu Saud, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He strongly condemned the Palestinian Authority’s $1.2 billion deal to import gas from the Zionist entity for a 20 year period, calling for its immediate cancellation.

“We are still living with the heavy consequences and negative effects on the Palestinian economy and living situation, mired in the mud of poverty, unemployment and division” caused by the Paris economic agreement between the PA and Israel, said Abu Saud. “This new deal only continues the systematic dangerous policy of the PA that cements the Zionist grip on our people and it will contribute to increasing the Zionist treasury, to be naturally used to support its military budget and aggression against our people.”

This agreement will consume enormous sums of money over long years, providing opportunities for some brokers within the PA to take advantage of and profit from the Palestinian people. He also urged connecting with Arab movements, particularly in Jordan, to stop these gas deals and build international solidarity against the occupation as it attempts to put its hands on the gas fields discovered in the Gaza sea and the West Bank.

In a statement, the PFLP noted that this is a time when all voices are resounding internationally for a boycott of the Zionist state in all forms and in all of its products. It noted that the deal reinforces the continuing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem for 20 years to come, suggesting that the signatories to this deal are in support with the occupation’s continued exploitation, destruction and violation of this land and people for at least 20 more years. The PFLP urged all Palestinian organizations and institutions to act in a coordinated fashion to put the strongest pressure on the PA to immediately cancel this agreement.

At the multidisciplinary workshop Strengthening the Culture of Human Rights in Palestinian Society held in Gaza last week, the organisers announced their intention to hold an annual human rights conference on December 10 each year in recognition of World Human Rights Day.

Chair of the Al-Awda University College academic committee Hisham Al-Mghari, who organised the workshop with the sponsorship of Gaza NGO The House of Wisdom, opened the event noting that Al-Awda has already launched Palestine’s first Bachelor’s degree in education and human rights.

“We are here together hand in hand for the sake of our country,” he told the delegates, who hailed from lawyers’ groups, universities, colleges and other institutes, civil organisations, various political factions, and the ministries of justice, education, interior and women including the Minister of Justice Salim Saqqa and Minister of Women Haifa al-Agha.

The one-day workshop culminated in 14 recommendations to promote and enhance human rights in Palestine, focussing on raising awareness of relevant norms and instruments including those contained in Palestinian law and the Islamic tradition as well as international conventions; educational and promotional activities to build a culture of human rights in the security sector, schools and the wider community; utilising all available tools including social media to promote international awareness of abuses of Palestinians’ rights by the Israeli occupation; and the promotion of national unity in word and in deed, including the rights and duties of civil servants.

The United Nations was not let off the hook, with one recommendation inviting the UN to comply with their responsibilities regarding the blatant violations of Palestinians’ human rights by the Israeli occupation.

However, most attention was directed to what Palestinians themselves must do.

“The development of any country depends on how much it respects human rights. Unfortunately, our society’s rights are being eroded, but we are respectful and dignified people and we won’t accept this,” Dr Ahmed Yousef of the House of Wisdom said.

“Hopefully, we will learn from this session: even if our learning takes twenty years, it is good to learn.”

Chicago’s 67-year-old Palestinian community leader, Rasmea Odeh, is set to appear in a Detroit federal court for sentencing on March 12, following her conviction on a single charge of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization. Three days ago, Judge Gershwin Drain issued an order denying two motions by Odeh’s defense team. One motion called for a new trial because of a number of legal errors in the court’s rulings in her November trial; another called for the judge to set aside the jury’s decision altogether.

“Since both defense motions challenged how Drain conducted the trial, it came as no surprise when he ruled against Rasmea, and in support of his own decisions,” said Hatem Abudayyeh of the Rasmea Defense Committee. “We know that the conviction was a travesty of justice, and that Judge Drain’s rulings made it impossible for the jury to give Rasmea a fair shake. She survived brutal torture by the Israelis, but the jury never got to hear that.”

Odeh’s attorneys are asking Drain to take her age and poor health into consideration and be lenient in his sentencing, but also plan to appeal her conviction, so will request the granting of an appeal bond no matter the sentence, which could be up to 10 years in prison, heavy fines, and deportation.

Unfazed by this latest ruling, the defense committee is redoubling efforts to win justice. Communities across the country are organizing protests, fundraisers, and several events with Rasmea speaking via live stream. A national week of action mobilized hundreds of supporters, with further actions planned for the coming week in at least 7 more cities.

“We will not give up in our defense and support of Rasmea as she moves forward to challenge this unjust conviction. She was prosecuted by the U.S. government because she is Palestinian, and because for decades, she has organized for Palestinian liberation and self-determination,” said Jess Sundin of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. “We are already making transportation and housing plans to ensure that we fill Judge Drain’s court room in Detroit on March 12, and hopefully an overflow room as well. Hundreds stood with Rasmea during her trial, and we’re prepared to stand with her again and again until justice is won.”

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expressed harsh condemnation of Palestinian figures who participated in a conference in Tel Aviv alongside Zionist war criminals, military figures, settlers and officials on February 16-17. The conference, “Israel in a Turbulent Region,” was organized by the Institute for National Security Studies, a so-called think tank that is at the heart of high-level political and military officialdom and international propaganda campaigns to promote a “national security agenda” for the further repression, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. At the conference, Avigdor Lieberman announced his plans for the execution of Palestinian prisoners and freedom fighters through the introduction of the “death penalty” in Israeli military courts – kangaroo courts that convict over 99% of the Palestinians brought before them and serve solely as a mechanism of mass imprisonment and oppression of Palestinians.

By participating in this conference alongside notorious war criminals and supporters of genocide, Rami Nasrallah, Sami Abu Shehadeh, and Asma Aghbaria-Zahalka have exceeded simple “normalization.” They have violated every principle of the Palestinian and international boycott of Israel and its institutions, betraying and distorting the image of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberation. In addition to the confirmed presentations of these three individuals, the conference’s program promised presentations by Qaddoura Fares, Jamal Zahalka and Ali Salem; it is unclear why they apparently did not appear in person and have issued no statements regarding the conference.

Rather than boycott this gathering of racists and war criminals at the highest level of the Zionist military machine, these Palestinian figures joined such figures as Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, Moshe Ya’alon, settler spokesperson Tamar Asraf, Danny Tirza (the architect of the apartheid wall), Tzipi Livni, Gilad Erdan, Martin Indyk, Udi Dekel, Amos Gilad and Pnina Sharvit Baruch on a series of panels designed to examine and intensify Zionist efforts to undermine Palestinian resistance, displace the Palestinian people and destroy Palestinian rights.

The INSS as an institution is deeply rooted in the Zionist state and its academic and military institutions. Its ranks are replete with retired military officials, and describes itself as “Israel’s foremost research institute in national security affairs,” planning activities and organizing closely with the Zionist state, its officials and military leaders. It played a major role in international propaganda campaigns to defend and justify the Zionist aggression against Gaza in summer 2014, killing over 2,000 Palestinians. Participating in a conference convened by such an institution is not only blatant normalization, but providing a Palestinian cover and legitimacy to some of the most notorious war criminals and advocates for genocide in the Zionist state.

Every Palestinian organization and the Palestinian movement as a whole – and particularly those organizations associated with the figures who spoke at this conference – must immediately take action to hold them accountable for this traitorous engagement with Zionist war criminals.

Rami Nasrallah, of the International Peace and Cooperation Center, a US and European funded center in Jerusalem that promotes normalization, providing cover for the ongoing Zionization and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, appeared on a panel on Jerusalem alongside Danny Tirza, the Zionist military architect of the apartheid wall devastating Palestinian lives and an array of Zionist spokespeople on Jerusalem. Rather than defend the Palestinian people of Jerusalem who are facing home demolitions, settler attacks, ID revocations on a daily basis while their very identity is excluded from their city, Nasrallah provided cover and “dialogue” to the officials planning the destruction of Arab Palestinian Jerusalem.

It must be noted that a central panel at the conference, opened by war criminal Tzipi Livni, focused on “The BDS Campaign Against Israel: Why, How and What Can Be Done?” planning and strategizing to defeat the Palestinian consensus for Palestinian, Arab and international boycott, divestment and sanctions of the occupation state. By their participation in such a conference, these Palestinian figures are participating in an attack on the Palestinian consensus that is represented in the boycott movement and betraying the Palestinian people at all levels. The INSS is no mere forum – it is actively involved in efforts internationally to attempt to stop the growing international economic, cultural and academic boycott of the occupation state.

Zionist officials and political party leaders presented their racist programs to the attendees, competing in their racist and colonialist anti-Palestinian propaganda, including Gilad Erdan, who has revoked Palestinians’ residency rights in Jerusalem while strategizing to escalate this policy to stripping Palestinians of citizenship; Naftali Bennett, whose entire political career is based on the escalation of racism (including boasting of having “killed lots of Arabs“); and numerous other Zionist officials. The conference also featured international advocates for Zionism and against Palestinian and Arab rights, including Indyk, Dennis Ross and Bernard-Henri Levy.

Sami Abu Shehadeh, general secretary of the Balad party in Jaffa,, joined a panel on “Arabs and Jews in Israel.” The appearance of this panel at this “national security” event makes it clear that the presence of Palestinians in ’48 is viewed as a matter of security rather than one of rights, humanity and justice. Participating in a panel on Palestinians in ’48 alongside the likes of Naftali Bennett only provides cover for the ongoing and massive racist attack by the Zionist state which is fundamentally based on the racist exclusion and oppression of Palestinians. Originally scheduled to participate on this panel was Jamal Zahalka, member of the Knesset for Balad party, who apparently did not participate in the final program. The participation of Abu Shehadeh confirms that the Balad party did not reject institutional participation in the conference but merely substituted one speaker for another.

The Balad party’s participation illustrates the fundamental problem with Palestinian participation in the Knesset – just as running candidates for the Knesset promotes the involvement of Palestinians with the state based on their exclusion while providing a “democratic” cover for its ongoing crimes, it leads to the justification of ongoing engagement with Zionist war criminals and racists. The reality is that there is no justification for such participation – in such a conference or in the Knesset – and it is contradictory to the rights of the Palestinian people. Building a “joint list” of Palestinians in ’48 to run for the Knesset is no step forward for Palestinian politics – on the contrary, it is an attempt to further embroil Palestinians in Zionist politics and undermines true Palestinian national unity that rejects Zionism at all levels.

Alongside Abu Shehadeh and Zionist academics and “security” experts Mordechai Kremnitzer and Asher Susser on the panel was Asma Aghbarieh Zahalka of Da’am Workers Party.Aghbarieh-Zahalka’s participation in this showcase of the Zionist racist “national security” state exposes the fundamental flaw in the political approach that claims to see only class struggle as relevant while dismissing the Palestinian and Arab national liberation struggle confronting racist settler colonialism as largely irrelevant or external to the struggle of Palestinians in ’48. In reality, such an approach obscures the actual class politics of settler colonial society, rather than clarifying them. There is no reason for any advocate of “socialism” to join a conference centered around the fascist and racist Zionist military and security enterprise.

Ali Salem, the mayor of Nazareth, was also scheduled to speak on this panel but apparently did not appear; Salem is the same official who, in the summer of 2014, denounced the mass protests in his city following the settler murder and burning of Palestinian teen, the martyr Mohammed Abu Khdeir as “rioting carried out by thugs,” demanding an end to the Palestinian popular movement in his city and calling for “calm” and an “end to the vandalism,” his description of the uprising of Palestinians in ’48.

The program also listed Qaddoura Fares as a participant as the sole Palestinian on a panel on “Israel and the Palestinians,” representing the Fateh movement. Fares, a leader in Fateh and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, has a lengthy history of normalization, from his support of the so-called “Geneva Initiative” meant to undermine Palestinian refugees’ right to return to engaging in international pro-normalization efforts with Knesset members.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demands immediate clarifications on the participation of Nasrallah, Abu Shehadeh and Aghbarieh-Zahalka, as well as the situation of Fares, Zahalka and Salem. In particular, there is a need for accountability in particular from the Balad party for its participation in the conference, as well as from the Fateh movement on the ongoing normalization activities engaged in by Fares. Through their participation in this event, these individuals have made it clear that they do not and are not appropriate representatives for the Palestinian people and have no qualms of trampling over the Palestinian popular demand for boycott and against normalization. Any Palestinian leader or spokesperson should be struggling to bring Ya’alon, Livni, Lieberman, Bennett and their ilk before international courts to be put on trial for war crimes, not joining them at “national security” conferences meant to strategize the destruction of Palestine.

A ceremony at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) on Monday launched the third phase of a double-whammy law project in Gaza designed to provide legal aid on the one hand, and practical legal experience for senior law students on the other.

Dr Mohamed Al Nahal, project leader and Associate Professor of International Law, said the project, which was launched in August 2011, has already had many successes, including the release of detained persons through representing them in court, and the settlement of several inheritance disputes.

“There have been more than a thousand free consultations in the last two years,” Dr Nahal said. “It combines training law students in practical legal skills with providing a much-needed – and free – social service. One hundred students will benefit from this next stage, where they will work in groups under the supervision of qualified lawyers.”

Dean of Sharia and Law Dr Rafaiq Radwan, Head of UNDP Gaza office Nicholas Hercules, and project leader Dr Mohamed Al Nahal at IUG launching the third phase.

The project works on three levels: awareness campaigns; law clinics for legal advice; and representation in court, which has occurred in 32 cases so far. It also includes a mobile clinic which takes project activities directly to disadvantaged areas.

Nicholas Hercules, Head of UNDP Gaza office, told Gaza SCOOP the project is an excellent example of how Gaza is modernising student learning by enabling practical hands-on community experience, rather than the isolated rote-learned theory of traditional legal education.

The UNDP official emphasised the importance of such work following the recent Israeli offensive.

“These students are helping in a very real way, and solving difficult problems such as proving ownership of houses,” he said. “The offensive caused a lot of destruction, including of documents such as titles to homes and land. Assistance to repair or rebuild destroyed houses requires that people are able to prove they own the house, and the students in this project are invaluable in helping owners to do this.”

Some of the law students who will be working in the law clinic

Fatima Hamdan, a woman lawyer at the clinic, said she deals mainly with women clients, and their issues tend to be personal, such as divorce, custody, and inheritance.

“Many of the cases I have dealt with have been solved through mediation and conciliation,” she said, “but there are still 10 that are waiting to go to court.”

Fatima said that women’s awareness of their rights still needs raising. She noted that women have many entitlements under Islamic law, which is the basis of Palestinian law, and these are contained in the Qu’ran.

“Most women are aware of their general rights as found in the Qu’ran but it is the detail that needs attention. I have found that when I hold information sessions, women are very interested and they always want to know more.”

Fatima is very much looking forward to their future project that will extend the education process beyond just informing women of their rights, to knowing how to claim them.

IUG President Dr Kamalain Sha’ath welcomed the UNDP announcement at the event that they had just negotiated a deal with Qatar to rebuild all the schools and universities in Gaza that were damaged in the July-August Israeli offensive.

But money alone is not enough.

“The siege must be lifted,” the UNDP Gaza head told Gaza SCOOP.

“For peace, prosperity and development in Gaza, for peace in the region, the siege must be lifted.”

Kiwi kindness has again lifted the spirits and living standards of the once-thriving-now-destroyed agricultural centre of Beit Hanoun, in North Gaza. In November 2014 Salwa Abu Nijila distributed blankets, clothes and groceries to 30 families, bought with donations from New Zealanders.

Ninety needy families are benefitting from this latest Federation of Islamic Associations in New Zealand (FIANZ)/Kiwi Trust project. According to Salwa, about nine families a day ask her for help, and she has about 500 very needy on her list, so she has had to prioritise.

Blankets, LED lights and batteries, and basic groceries and food are the most essential items this time around, which she is giving to the poorest as they are being neglected by the big donors who only provide help for the homeless.

Those sheltering in the UNRWA schools will not be recipients in this distribution because they have light there, and food, and they were given blankets last time. UNRWA has now built men’s and women’s bathrooms at the schools, too, so conditions there are much better than they were.

Some people who ask for help are already receiving assistance from other organisations so Salwa and her team concentrate on helping those who get nothing from anywhere else. Keeping track of this isn’t so difficult in a small place like Gaza, and they are able to find out pretty effectively through their networks, and indirect questioning.

Some of these people told how their children don’t even have clothes, let alone blankets, and the mothers must cover them with their coats. UNRWA gives them food only once every three months.

But even UNRWA is facing its own problems – the money promised by donors at the Cairo Gaza reconstruction conference has still not arrived in Gaza six months later, leading them to cut services.

The situation in Beit Hanoun – and all across the Gaza Strip – is catastrophic.

Generosity such as that provided by FIANZ and Kiwi Trust, while small compared to the size of the need, is having a huge impact by reaching the people on the ground, literally.

Remains of ambulance, one of many deliberately targetted by Israeli fire killing medics and patients

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today announced the issuance of a presidential decree forming a committee that “will identify and prepare the documents and records that the state of Palestine will present to the ICC,” according to the official Wafa news agency.

The decree indicated that the committee’s members, drawn from Palestinian human rights groups, academia and the political sphere, will be headed by Saeb Erekat.

The appointment of Nikolay Mladenov as United Nations envoy to the so-called “Middle East peace process” is the antithesis of any effort to lead to real peace with justice in the region, said Comrade Kayed al-Ghoul, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mladenov is known for his statements in support of the Zionist state and justification of its crimes against the Palestinian people since he was foreign minister of Bulgaria. The United Nations’ claim to seek real peace in the region will be belied if it continues to provide cover for the crimes of the occupation, said al-Ghoul.

Al-Ghoul said that the appointment of Mladenov in this position is a further attempt by powerful parties in the international organization, particularly the United States, to strengthen the position of the occupation state in international institutions addressing the Palestinian cause and the “Arab-Israeli conflict.”

In this context, he denounced the attacks and pressures to which William Schabas, chair of the International Commission of Inquiry investigating the Israeli attack on Gaza and its war crimes against the Palestinian people, was subject by the Israeli state and its allies, forcing his resignation and leading to his replacement by a US judge on the panel. This was clearly an attempt by the Netanyahu government to cut the road in front of the findings of Schabas and the ICI on the crimes of the occupation in its war on Gaza, said al-Ghoul.

Al-Ghoul called on all Palestinian forces, including official representatives in international arenas, and PA President Abu Mazen to take action urgently to stop the appointment of Mladenov because of his clear history of positions and bias in support of the occupier, which is definitely in contradiction with the rights of the Palestinian people and incompatible with the growing international public demand to hold the Israeli state accountable for its crimes and siege, and to support the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom and justice.

Hemaya Center for Human Rights is deeply concerned about the events leading to the resignation of Professor William Schabas as Chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, and his replacement by Ms Mary McGowan Davis.

We consider that best practice requires that potential conflicts of interest are explored PRIOR to appointment to such inquiries, and we are most concerned that this appears not to have been the case in regard to Professor Schabas. We remain concerned that it has also not been the case re Ms McGowan Davis, given her hasty appointment.

Mere appearance of conflict of interest is not sufficient for Schabas’ departure. Actual conflict of interest, or a high probability of it, must be demonstrated.

The issue is whether a previous professional relationship compromises the commissioner’s ability to investigate and deliberate in the new case without bias. The nature of the services previously provided to the client in question, and the commissioner’s prior record in similar circumstances, are the best way to establish this probability.

We consider the Bureau of the Human Rights Council’s decision to examine a complaint by Israel and to request a legal opinion from United Nations Headquarters in New York to have been the appropriate, if belated, course of action, and await publication of the opinion.

We consider accepting Professor Schabas’ resignation before this opinion was received implies the HRC accepts the allegations of bias, contrary to due process. We consider this denigrates Professor Schabas in the eyes of the world, regardless of whether Israel’s allegation is upheld or not.

We find Professor Schabas’ own decision to resign before receipt of this opinion to be both regrettable, and likely taken under duress.

We note similar pressure was put on Richard Goldstone following publication of the Goldstone Report into the 2008-9 Israeli offensive against Gaza recommending investigation of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, ultimately leading to his recanting of these recommendations.

We also note the role of Mary McGowan Davis’ report in Goldstone’s retraction, as described in an article he penned in the Washington Post, and the warm reception in the Israeli press of the appointment of Mary McGowan Davis.

In light of these concerns, Hemaya calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council to:

1. Utilize professional and transparent appointment processes to UN commissions, including pre-appointment declaration/investigation of potential conflicts of interest, and publishing reasons for appointments where potential conflicts have been identified;

2. Assure the international public that the appointment of Mary McGowan Davis has been found to be free of conflict of interest, and why, particularly given her role in past reports on Israeli offensives against Gaza;

3. Publish the UN Headquarters legal opinion on whether or not the alleged conflict of interest of Dr Schabas would have compromised his ability to serve as an unbiased chair of the Gaza Inquiry;

4. Assure the international community that Israeli pressure is not determining appointments to, or the deliberations and findings of, the ongoing Gaza inquiry.

President of the Human Rights Council Joachim Ruecker on Tuesday appointed Israeli-approved former New York judge Ms Mary McGowan Davis to replace Professor William Shabas as Chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict.

The UN is clearly responsible for this mess, regardless of Israel’s protracted attacks on Professor Shabas ever since the announcement of his appointment, culminating in last week’s letter to the UN.

The first step in ANY professional investigation is to obtain a signed declaration stating that the investigator/commissioner has no personal or professional connection with any of the parties that would compromise their ability to conduct an impartial investigation. Why did this not occur?

Has it occurred THIS time?

Probably not, given McGowan Davis’ track record.

McGowan Davis is well-known for her report on the 2008-9 Israeli offensive against Gaza that found “Israel devoted substantial resources to investigating more than 400 complaints of improper behavior in Gaza.”

Her report was also referred to by Goldstone in his Washington Post article, appropriately published on April Fool’s Day 2011, in which he sought to justify recanting the findings of the Goldstone Report.

Undoubtedly there will be no flurry of Israeli accusations and character assassinations a la Goldstone and Shabas – their golden girl will surely come through with another whitewash – remember, the recommendations of the Goldstone Report, ie to investigate war crimes, were never implemented following that of McGowan Davis.

Curiously, in Professor Shabas letter of resignation he states that on February 2, 2015 the Bureau of the Human Rights Council decided to examine a complaint by Israel and to request a legal opinion from United Nations Headquarters in New York. What was that legal opinion?

It appears that Professor Shabas resigned under pressure, before the opinion was even given – an opinion that may well have exonnerated him from any putative taint of conflict of interest. His lack of courage is most regrettable – not because he may have found against Israel, but because yet another UN commissioner has caved in to Israeli bullying.

It seems the playground bully is now running not only the US, but also the UN.

Do the rest of the students stop using the playground because the bully will attack them? No, the school takes action against the bully.

The ‘school board’ has a very clear obligation to end Israeli impunity AND attempts to control it before the last vestige of UN credibility vanishes completely.

Professional and transparent appointment processes to UN commissions would go a long way to avoiding situations such as this arising in the first place.

To end impunity and ensure justice, genuine independence of the UN and a refusal to buckle to Israeli pressure would go even further.

]]>http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/gaza-inquiry-un-messed-up/feed/0Press Statement on the resignation of the Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflicthttp://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/press-statement-on-the-resignation-of-the-chairperson-of-the-commission-of-inquiry-on-the-2014-gaza-conflict/
http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/press-statement-on-the-resignation-of-the-chairperson-of-the-commission-of-inquiry-on-the-2014-gaza-conflict/#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 08:11:25 +0000http://gaza.scoop.ps/?p=3631PRESS STATEMENT
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Geneva, 3 February 2015 — The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Joachim Ruecker (Germany), received a letter from Professor William Schabas last night in which Professor Schabas indicates that he is resigning as chair and member of the Commission of Inquiry on the Gaza conflict with immediate effect.

This letter follows one sent to the Council President on Friday, 30 January, by the Permanent Mission of Israel in which they ask for Professor Schabas’ dismissal from the Commission of Inquiry due to what they refer to as a conflict of interest. [All communications are available on the HRC Extranet]

The President has accepted the resignation of Professor Schabas and thanks him for his work over the past six months as Chair of the Commission. The President respects the decision of Professor Schabas and appreciates that in this way even the appearance of a conflict of interest is avoided, thus preserving the integrity of the process.

The Human Rights Council President notes the decision taken by the Council requesting the Commission of Inquiry to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and he also notes that the Commission is now in the final phase of collecting evidence from as many victims and witnesses as possible from both sides.

The report of the Commission of Inquiry is scheduled to be presented to the Human Rights Council at its upcoming session on 23 March.

The President is currently in discussions with the remaining two members of the Commission of Inquiry to discuss the appointment of the new Chairperson.

Ambassador Ruecker underlines the need to remain focused on the substantive work of the Commission in the interest of the victims and their families on both sides.

__________

]]>http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/press-statement-on-the-resignation-of-the-chairperson-of-the-commission-of-inquiry-on-the-2014-gaza-conflict/feed/0No place for Israeli army official in European Parliamenthttp://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/no-place-for-israeli-army-official-in-european-parliament/
http://gaza.scoop.ps/2015/02/no-place-for-israeli-army-official-in-european-parliament/#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 05:39:28 +0000http://gaza.scoop.ps/?p=3628PRESS RELEASE
Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GNE/NGL)

Child in Shifa Hospital, July 2014 (Photo: JWP)

03/02/15 Brussels

GUE/NGL has condemned plans to welcome a top Israeli military officer who played a leading role in the Operation Cast Lead onslaught on Gaza to the European Parliament.

Major General Yoav Mordechai was set to meet MEPs on Parliament’s delegation for relations with Israel today – but the meeting was cancelled at the last minute this morning.

Yoav Mordechai was a battalion commander with the Golani Brigade, an elite division in the Israeli army, during Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 and early 2009. This 23-day bombardment of Gaza claimed the lives of over 1400 Palestinians.

Irish MEP Martina Anderson, Chair of Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the Palestine Legislative Council, said: “Although the exact reasons why it was called off remain unclear we welcome the cancellation of the meeting. But we condemn the fact that it was set to go ahead in the first place. We can’t accept someone with such a track record being welcomed to the European Parliament. Put simply, this man has blood on his hands.”

Portuguese MEP Marisa Matias added: “Giving him a platform to host a lecture would legitimise his violations of international law and human rights. Rather than giving a warm welcome to those who stand for repression and apartheid, the EU institutions should pressure the Israeli government to abide by the rules of international law and UN resolutions. We must bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Comrade Al-Hakim was born on August 1, 1925 in the city of al-Lydd, Palestine; at the time, Palestine was under British colonial control under the British Mandate, and Palestinians were facing the materialization of the colonial settler project known today as Israel. Dr. Habash attended Anglican school and then public school in al-Lydd during his early education; he then studied at the Orthodox school in Yafa, before secondary school in Jerusalem. He completed high school in 1942. During his childhood years, he was deeply influenced by the situation in Palestine, including the Palestinian revolution which took place between 1936 and 1939 against British colonialism and impending Zionist colonialism. He returned to Yafa after graduating high school, teaching for two years in the same school he attended before enrolling in the American University of Beirut in 1944 to study medicine.

Dr George Habash

In 1948, while Comrade Habash was studying in Beirut, al-Nakba took place, in which over 700,000 Palestinians, including Dr. Habash’s family and many other Palestinians in al-Lydd, were driven from their homes and made refugees. Along with other Palestinian and Arab comrades in Beirut, in response to al-Nakba, Dr. Habash founded the Arab Nationalist Movement. This movement became very strong among youth, students and intellectuals across the Arab world, and was the first pan-Arab movement to take up armed struggle to confront colonialism and to liberate occupied Arab land. After graduating with his medical degree in 1951, he participated in clinics serving Palestinian refugees in the camps in Jordan along with Comrade martyr Dr. Wadi’ Haddad, while continuing his leadership of the Arab Nationalist Movement.

After the defeat of 1967, he and his comrades established the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Palestinian revolution was under severe attack at the time, not only by Israel and imperialism, but also by reactionary forces and regimes in the Arab world. In Jordan, the Palestinian movement faced massacres at the hands of the regime, and was forced to flee to Lebanon, where a new base of the Palestinian revolution was established. In Lebanon, Dr. Habash continued his leadership of the Front throughout the civil war and the Israeli invasion, until 1982, when the PLO and its activists, fighters and institutions were forced to leave Lebanon. Al-Hakim and his comrades went to Damascus in 1982, after which he focused heavily on the establishment and development of institutions inside Palestine, as well as the protection of the Palestinian revolution’s existence, recognizing as he did the dangers to Palestinian rights posed by the beginnings of the so-called “peace process;” for example, initiatives by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and the so-called Amman agreement of 1985.

In 1987, with the outbreak of the great Intifada, Dr. Habash called for upholding Palestinian national unity, and convening the Palestinian National Congress in Algeria in 1988. Comrade Al-Hakim always understood national unity as a necessary condition for the continuation of the struggle and the national liberation movement, whether in Beirut during internal fighting among Palestinians and after as well, recognizing that the internal contradictions among Palestinians could not be solved through military mechanisms, but rather through the democratic processes of the liberation movement.

In 1993, when the Oslo agreement was signed, Comrade Al-Hakim called for maximum popular opposition to the agreement and saw in it a defeat to the Palestinian traditional leadership of the PLO. Dr. Habash warned that the Oslo agreement particularly targeted a central issue of the Palestinian national movement, the right to return. In 1994 and 1995, he called for internal and external meetings for Palestinian leaders and activists in exile, to launch campaigns and establish al-Awda committees and right to return organizations everywhere possible in order to protect this vital and central right for Palestinian refugees in light of the new threat posed by Oslo and its effects.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine convened its sixth conference in 2000, in which Dr. Habash participated,delivering his last address as General Secretary, before declaring his resignation from the post. He did this, providing an example for allowing the transfer of leadership within an organization through its democratic processes, which he upheld as a value that strengthened, rather than weakened, organizations and movements. The Front elected Abu Ali Mustafa to succeed Dr. Habash as General Secretary.

From 2000 through 2008, Dr. Habash established the al-Ghad al-Arabi center for studies and lived in Amman near his daughters and family. He is survived by his wife, Hilda and two daughters, Maysa and Lama.

Comrade Al-Hakim, throughout his life, demonstrated not only the highest level of care and dedication to his people, but also consistently and clearly conveyed and developed a scientific vision and analysis both of the future of the revolution and the dangers and plans against it forged by the enemies of his people. Al-Hakim has left us with a rich experience bearing many legacies from which we can benefit and learn, as we continue along his path until the liberation of Palestine.

Geneva – On Friday, January 16, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine, following the Palestinian authorities’ acceptance of the jurisdiction of the institution over alleged crimes committed in the it territories, including East Jerusalem, since June 13.

Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in Geneva and with a team in the Gaza Strip, welcomes the prosecutor’s decision and is ready to cooperate with the court by providing it with extensive documentation of war crimes. A full investigation is required to remove the main obstacles to peace and restore the parties’ trust in international justice, which ultimately must culminate in an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the decades-old cycle of violence.

“The prosecutor’s decision to examine the information available in order to open a serious investigation into war crimes perpetrated in the Palestinian territories gives hope to the victims’ families that justice may be more than a platitude,” says Ihsan Adel, Euro-Mid legal adviser. “The total lack of accountability and redress is what drives the belief that violent resistance is the only option.”

Euro-Mid calls upon Western governments, especially European Union countries, to support the prosecutor’s decision and the Palestinian authorities’ action, and to pressure the Israeli government to release Palestinians’ tax revenues, which it has been holding in retaliation for their decision to seek justice through international channels.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see its suffering, we know that our commitment to human rights stops at the Israeli border; it hurries past the apartheid wall. We do not, it seems, believe in universal human rights after all.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see its dead, dust-covered children, we know that our belief in the rule of law and accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity is nothing more than fancy talk designed to seduce and distract from the ethical vacuum at the heart of our legal ethics.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see the crushed wheelchairs of the disabled, too slow to get out with a one minute warning, we know that we consider some lives to be value-less, expendable, ungrievable. The Gazan dead are collateral damage, the responsibility of the terrorists, unfortunate accidents, deserving of their deaths because of their government; there are a million reasons to discount lives, to dismiss suffering.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see its hospitals crowded with the weeping wounded, waiting for vital medicines to be allowed in by Israeli border officials, we realise that we do not consider that all people have the right to live in freedom and dignity. We have learned to accept the imprisonment of an entire people behind walls; we accept that some can enjoy the freedoms we possess while others must possess subjugation, injustice, humiliation.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see family homes, hospitals, mosques and cultural centres reduced to rubble, we know that our commitment to international law and justice is little more than political expediency, a rhetorical flourish concealing a cynical calculus.

The problem with Gaza is that when we see people running about helplessly behind the walls, desperate to escape the screaming, searching bombs, we know that we accept an international order in which the powerful terrify and debase the weak, the oppressed are denied the right to resist, and in which military might trumps morality and reason.

The problem with Gaza is that it is a mirror to the moral vacuum that is ‘civilised, Western values’. It taunts us, mocking our deeply-held beliefs, our delusional self-confessed identity as civilised, democratic, advanced. We think our politicians, our institutions and our societies really do cherish human rights, democracy, rule of law and a compassionate, humane international order. We believe our media tell the truth. But when we look at what Israel does to Gaza, to the Palestinians across the colonised territories, day after day and year after year, we know that none of this is really true. Suddenly, brutally, we know that we are hypocrites, our leaders are hypocrites, our purported values are nothing but vapours; they vanish with the first breeze of a US-made Israeli attack helicopter.

The problem with Gaza is that it reminds us that our governments send arms to Israel, accept its nuclear arsenal without protest, maintain full diplomatic relations with it, allow its representatives to speak unchallenged in our media, make excuses for its illegal, immoral behaviour, and block UN resolutions which criticise its walls, its blockades, its annexation of land, its excessive violence. It reminds us that we continue to vote for politicians and political parties who refuse to speak or act on behalf of the oppressed, despite their fine rhetoric about freedom and human rights. It reminds us that we allow Israel to act with impunity by our silence, our cooperation, our normalised relations. It reminds us that we have chosen a side, and it is not the side of justice and freedom.

The problem with Gaza is that it reminds us that we are all complicit in its suffering if we do nothing.

Israeli forces detained over 1,000 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem over the course of this year, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Tuesday.

Abdel-Nasser Farawna, who heads the PLO’s authority for prisoners’ affairs, said that Israel had detained 1,266 Palestinian children below the age of 15 in the occupied territories throughout 2014.

“The vast majority of these arrests occurred in the second half of the year,” Farawna said in a statement.

He added that the arrests had increased significantly since the abduction and killing of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank in June.

Some 200 of the 1,266 children detained currently remain in Israeli detention facilities, Farawna asserted.

“The targeting of children by Israel, especially in occupied Jerusalem, is rising significantly,” Farawna said, stressing that Israeli forces had detained 87 percent more children in 2011 than they had three years earlier.

“The children testified that they had been subjected to various forms of torture and deprived of their basic rights,” Farawna said.

He went on to urge international organizations to intervene to “protect the children from detention and torture.”

The PLO recently said that over 6,000 Palestinians had been detained by the Israeli army and police throughout 2014.

Israeli forces routinely conduct arrest campaigns targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on claims they are “wanted” by Israeli authorities.

Over 7,000 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons located throughout Israel, according to the Palestinian government.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the statements of Mahmoud al-Habbash at Friday prayers on December 26, in which he trumpeted the right of the Palestinian Authority and its monopolistic official leadership to pursue its political project with no regard to the vision or input of the Palestinian people and their political parties, a project reflected in the infamous UN Security Council draft that threatens Palestinian fundamental rights. The Front also demanded accountability from PA President Mahmoud Abbas in reference to the statements in al-Habbash’s sermon, which Abbas attended, in the following statement:

“In his sermon at Friday prayers on Friday, December 26, Mahmoud al-Habbash, former minister, Chief Justice of Palestine, and presidential adviser for religious affairs, shouted at the top of his voice from the pulpit that the Palestinian leadership will continue on its current path enthusiastically, with or without the Palestinian factions and political parties.

It must be noted that PA President Abu Mazen was himself among the worshipers present for Habbash’s speech and clearly heard his statement, which requires an explanation for various reasons:

1. Many believe that what al-Habbash says in his Friday sermon reflects the policy and direction of Abu Mazen.

2. What Habbash said was consistent with the policy of exclusivity of the Palestinian official leadership, as directed both towards the factions and the Palestinian people, as has been visible in the case of the draft submitted by the Security Council, which was not submitted to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization or to the provisional leadership framework which includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad and independent figures.

3. The Fateh leadership was itself not treated differently from the Executive Committee; one of the members of the central committee has stated explicitly that they did not see the draft until they read it on Web sites.

4. Mr. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, has said that “the Palestinian leadership has realized that there are certain gaps in the draft” and is now requesting eight amendments after submission, which “relate to East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine, and the settlements, as all settlement activity is illegal and invalid, and solving the refugee issue on the basis of Resolution 194 and adding a paragraph on Palestinian prisoners.”

Our question here to President Abu Mazen and the official leadership: If these were all gaps recognized by reference to the negotiations, what are the implications of your draft and your policy that you will continue to pursue?!

The factions are the leadership and the material of the Palestinian revolution, and it seems that a reminder is necessary that Abu Mazen is not PA President alone, but is chair of a faction called Fateh and its candidate for the presidency of the PA and the PLO. This policy promoted by Mr. Habbash and expressed by the infamous draft presented to the UN Security Council is a wrong, dangerous and harmful policy, violating the Palestinian national program and undermining explicitly the goals of the Palestinian national struggle. This requires a alert and watchful response by all Palestinians, whether they are part of factions or not.”

GENEVA ( 23 December 2014) – The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, (established under Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-21/1) continues to do its utmost to obtain access to the Gaza Strip, as well as the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and access to Israel, in order to fulfil its mandate. The Commission has repeatedly sought the cooperation of the Government of Israel to facilitate access so the Commissioners can meet face to face a wide range of victims of alleged violations and also the relevant authorities. In the absence of a response from Israel, the Commission of Inquiry is still actively seeking the cooperation of the Government of Egypt, which has indicated it is ready to facilitate the Commissioners’ travel to Gaza as soon as the security situation permits travel there.

In the meantime, the Commission of Inquiry is in the process of interviewing a wide spectrum of witnesses and victims in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory using technology to overcome the physical distance. The testimony heard so far has been very moving and the Commissioners are deeply conscious of the enormous responsibility the victims have placed on them by trusting them with accounts of very intimate and traumatic experiences.

The Commissioners’ mandate from the Human Rights Council is, “to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014, whether before, during or after”. The Commissioners wish to make it clear that they interpret this mandate to include investigations of the activities of Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, including attacks on Israel, as well as the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip and Israeli actions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. The Commission of Inquiry is looking at a broad range of alleged violations committed by all parties, and is considering the full range of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.

The Commissioners personally wish to reassure all those who have suffered so intensely as a result of this conflict that they will do their utmost to fulfil their mandate to the best of their abilities. The three Commissioners have travelled to the region and plan follow-up trips in early 2015. They invite members of the public to make submissions to the Commission in English, Arabic, Hebrew or any UN official language, by post or email. Details of how to do this are given below.

Procedure for submissions:

Submissions may be sent:

By email to: coigaza@ohchr.org

By post to: The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, Palais de Nations, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.

Please indicate whether the submission, or any part of it, should be treated confidentially.

Submissions should be sent no later than 31 January 2015 in a written form and must include the contact details for the author(s) of the submission;

Israeli F-16s are flying low over Gaza thismorning hot on the heels of Saturday’s airstrikes in Khan Younes, bringing the number of ceasefire violations since August to at least 95.

The propensity for desperate governments such as Netanyahu’s to try to shore up support in upcoming elections by waging war does not justify either the practice, or this latest onslaught by Israeli forces on Gaza, still reeling from last summer’s slaughter.

The international community sat on its hands while blatant war crimes were committed, pledged money for reconstruction before the blood was dry but did not deliver, policed the borders for the Israeli occupation so that reconstruction could NOT occur, and still stands by while hundreds of thousands made homeless by Israeli war crimes freeze and starve in the rubble.

Meanwhile, Egypt has poured troops into the Sinai, demolished 800 homes in the town of Rafah on the Egyptian side to create a one km buffer zone, all but sealed the Rafah border, and last week taken delivery of 10 Apache helicopters from the US.

Bern, 17.12.2014 – Representatives of 126 High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention met in Geneva today to adopt by consensus a ten-point Declaration recalling applicable international humanitarian law (IHL) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East-Jerusalem. The conference was hosted by Switzerland in its capacity as Depositary of the Geneva Conventions.

The ten-point Declaration adopted by consensus by the Conference today reaffirms fundamental principles of international humanitarian law which all High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War must respect. It emphasizes that these principles also apply to non-state actors. The Declaration reaffirms the outcome documents of two previous conferences of 1999 and 2001 and reiterates legal obligations relating to developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2001.

In his opening statement, the Chairman of the Conference, Ambassador Paul Fivat, noted that through the declaration, the participating States reaffirmed that international humanitarian law and in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention continued to apply in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and needed to be respected for the benefit of affected civilians. Representatives of the ICRC, of UNRWA and of several groups also spoke.

Switzerland, in its capacity as Depositary of the Geneva Conventions and acting as a facilitator, had concluded last week that the Conference would be convened, after consulting High Contracting Parties about this question from 28 July to 3 December 2014. The Depositary undertook these consultations pursuant to a recommendation of the United Nations General Assembly contained in resolution 64/10 of 5 November 2009. While an initial round of consultations in 2009 and 2010 had remained inconclusive, the consultations during the last four months had revealed a cross-regional critical mass of High Contracting Parties requesting the reconvening of a Conference, as had been the case in 1999 and 2001. A small of number of High Contracting Parties expressed their opposition and did not attend the Conference.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine unequivocally rejects the so-called “French Initative” being sponsored at the United Nations by the Jordanian regime as a dangerous threat to Palestinian refugees’ right of return that undermines Palestinian rights in the United Nations under the guise of support for a “Palestinian state,” said a spokesperson for the Front.

The draft resolution before the UN Security Council provides no enforcement mechanisms nor penalties upon the occupying power for its continued flagrant violation of international law, occupation, imposition of apartheid and denial of Palestinian refugees’ fundamental rights for the past 66 years. On the contrary, unlike the resolutions which the Security Council has so eagerly passed against Iraq, Syria, Sudan and other countries, it contains no requirements, mandates or penalties whatsoever but rather presents a false view of the “conflict” as one between equal parties with legitimate rights and interests.

In no way does this resolution mandate the creation of a Palestinian state within 12 months; it simply “affirms the urgent need” to “attain no later than 12 months…a just lasting comprehensive peaceful solution that brings an end to the Israeli occupation since 1967 and fulfills the vision of two independent, democratic and prosperous states, Israel and a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security within mutually and internationally recognized borders.”

In the context of the United Nations, this merely reiterates existing UN policy demanding an end to the Israeli occupation in violation of UN resolutions and international law. “Affirming an urgent need” creates no requirement or mandate to implement this desire, nor does it provide any penalties to the Israeli state for refusing to end its occupation.

The most damaging and dangerous part of the resolution, however, comes in its definition of the “negotiated solution,” where it recognizes the principles of “mutually agreed, limited and equivalent land swaps;” Palestinian land is entirely occupied. It is not to be bartered with the occupier to legitimize its settlements on our land or allow it to transfer Palestinians of 1948 occupied Palestine to the so-called Palestinian state.

Second, and most importantly, the draft resolution seeks to replace the cornerstone of UN resolutions on Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right to return, denied them for over 66 years, Resolution 194, with “a just and agreed solution to the Palestine refugee question on the basis of Arab Peace Initiative, international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, including resolution 194 (III).” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has always rejected the so-called Arab Peace Initiative and all similar initiatives, as they seek to replace the individual, national and collective right of return of the Palestinian refugees with a “negotiated solution” that puts that right on the negotiating table to be sold or bargained away.

The inclusion of this clause within the UN draft resolution renders it a threat to Palestinian rights under the guise of support for “Palestinian statehood,” and a damaging attack and attempt to liquidate the undeniable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes and lands, the cornerstone of the Palestinian cause and the key to the liberation and self-determination of our people. Palestinian refugees are in fact the majority of the Palestinian people – and their rights and those of all other Palestinians are only endangered by this resolution.

The resolution does not recognize Jerusalem as occupied, but only notes it to be “the shared capital of two States.” It provides the longest paragraph in this section for “security arrangements,” labeling the occupation army “security forces,” and viewing the occupation and colonization of Palestine as a security issue rather than one of anti-colonial struggle against a colonizing occupier.

Furthermore, the resolution lags far behind existing UN resolutions: it does not demand an end to the construction of colonial settlements but merely “calls upon…parties to abstain from..settlement activities.” Nowhere does the draft resolution mandate the dismantlement of settlements; rather it promotes “land swaps” and leaves the issue of settlers entirely aside.

The resolution seeks as well to demand Arab normalization with Israel and states that the above “final status agreement” will put an “end to all claims” and lead to “immediate mutual recognition.” Above all, it situates the Palestinian struggle within a framework of negotiations, which have done nothing more over more than 20 years than to provide cover for the crimes of the occupation and the dismantlement of Palestinian rights.

The Zionist state is built on the dispossession of Palestinian land and the displacement of Palestinian people. It is an apartheid, racist, settler colonial state. It divides the Arab people for the interests of imperialism and it is a project that has no place in our region. We do not recognize a colonial racist state; its racist structure must be dismantled. In no way is the achievement of the Palestinian state on one part of Palestine an “end of all claims.” The Palestinian people do not concede their full right of return; the right of our Palestinian people inside 1948 to live free, self-determined lives free of racism and discrimination; and the right to liberate the entire land of Palestine.

The Palestinian struggle is one for liberation of our people and our land from a brutal, genocidal colonial regime. It is for the return of Palestinian refugees, it is for the exercise of the sovereignty and self-determination of the Palestinian people on all of their land. It is not a conflict between equal parties, it is a struggle between the colonized and the colonizer, between the oppressed and the oppressor. It is the fight to establish a democratic Palestine for all on the entire land of Palestine, liberated from occupation, racism and oppression.

The “two state solution” has not been a mechanism to gradually achieve Palestinian rights, nor even any real Palestinian sovereignty; rather, the “state-building initiatives” referred to positively in the draft resolution have supported capitalist investment and exploitation at the expense of the Palestinian popular classes, who have not benefitted from such funding. There is no liberation for any part of Palestine or its people envisioned by this resolution: only the continuation of the endless series of negotiations chipping away at Palestinian rights while the occupier continues to attack and destroy.

Centrally, this draft resolution is an effort to undermine the right of return and enshrine the bankrupt negotiations process in a resolution of the UN Security Council, replacing the right of return with “negotiated solutions,” and UN resolutions affirming Palestinian rights with those affirming the path of negotiations.

The PFLP spokesperson called upon Palestinian and Arab communities in France and French supporters and friends of Palestine to reject the role of the French imperialist state in attempting to redefine and undermine the Palestinian cause. The French state has no legitimacy on the issue of Palestine and has provided no support for Palestinian rights. Rather, it has attempted to legitimize the constant Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people while imprisoning strugglers for Palestine such as Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and suppressing demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine in Paris.

This draft resolution is widely rejected by Palestinian political forces who have repeatedly pointed out the threats and dangers within it. It is supported only by a few Palestinian capitalists who seek to profit and Palestinian Authority officials. Once again, the Palestinian political decision has been hijacked by Abbas and his cronies to the detriment of the Palestinian people.

The fact that the Israelis reject this draft resolution and the United States has expressed its “lack of support” means only that Zionism and imperialism in the region are not willing to concede even a few crumbs to the Palestinian people. Much like Netanyahu’s rejection of the Oslo process, the flagrant racism and genocidal discourse of the Israeli state does not make the draft resolution a step forward for Palestinian rights and liberation.

“We unequivocally reject this attack on Palestinian rights under the guise of ‘Palestinian statehood’ and urge its rejection by all responsible Palestinian parties as unrepresentative and dangerous to the rights and the cause of the Palestinian people for which so many martyrs, wounded and prisoners have given their lives,” said the PFLP spokesperson.

On 11 December 2014, the Alkarama Foundation presented its 6th annual Award for Human Rights Defenders in the Arab world to Palestinian human rights lawyer and activist, Shireen Issawi, in recognition of her courage and bravery in defending Palestinian prisoners and advocating for their rights. The ceremony held at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva focused on the Palestinian people’s strategy of non-violent resistance, a story largely under-reported in the mainstream media.

Speaking at the event were UN and international law experts, Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein and Alfred de Zayas, as well as Palestinian Member of the Knesset, Haneen Zoabi, and Swiss political personalities, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold and Guy Mettan. In the absence of Shireen, arrested by the Israeli authorities on 6 March 2014 as part of a crackdown on lawyers defending Palestinian prisoners, the Award was presented to her parents, Layla and Tarek Issawi.

Opening the ceremony, Rachid Mesli, Alkarama’s Legal Director said: “Thousands of Palestinians are arbitrarily detained by simple administrative decision, including numerous children. [...] It is for denouncing these violations and having dedicated her life to justice and freedom for the Palestinian people that Shireen Issawi also finds herself in jail today, accused – like too many Arab activists in their respective countries – of supporting terrorism or terrorist organisations.”

“Shireen Issawi’s nonviolent resistance forms a link in the chain of a long, honourable tradition. It includes not only names familiar to all of us, such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but also, and more significantly, the nameless Palestinians who waged a heroic mass nonviolent struggle against the Israeli occupation during the first intifada, that began 27 years ago, on 9 December 1987,” said expert of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Norman Finkelstein. “Shireen Issawi’s unbendable will in a righteous cause serves as a luminous example, not just for Palestinians, but also for everyone struggling to make the world a better place.”

“Shireen Issawi is a brave, resolute and inspiring human rights defender who has dedicated her professional career as a lawyer to the long Palestinian national struggle for freedom and self-determination,” added former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk. “By honouring Shireen Issawi we are expressing our commitment to nonviolence as the path to peace based on rights and justice, and on the equality of the two peoples. [...] As we honour her, we are also seeking to remind the world that it is past time to end the ordeal of injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people as a whole.”

“Israel annexed the territory of East Jerusalem but not the Palestinians who were born and live there,” explained Haneen Zoabi, recently banned from all parliamentary activity for six months for having suggested that the Palestinian resistance was a legitimate struggle. “One third of the city’s residents are people without citizenship. They live in a country that views their territory as its own but does not view them as part of it.”

“In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin wall, we said ‘never again’ walls that separate peoples. Now there are walls everywhere, walls that not only separate two peoples and two cultures, but also make the building of a lasting peace impossible,” continued former member of the Swiss Parliament and the Council of Europe, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold. In a moving speech, she recalled the many instances where the international community had said “never more” such as after the Shoah, which had led to the adoption of an international human rights system – a system which no one should ever take for granted. “[In Switzerland] we are free; but it is from you [Shireen] that we learn how important it is to fight for the protection of human rights.”

In a letter written from her solitary cell on 6 November and read by her mother, Layla Issawi at the Alkarama Award ceremony, Shireen stated: “Some believe that the Palestinian people are defeated because they live under the occupation. Their hypothesis is far from the truth. Those who defend their inalienable right to freedom and dignity are not defeated. On the contrary, however inhumane the occupation and its ability to arrest, kill and destroy are, these men must have the strength and courage to continue until they get their freedom.” Thanking “all the free men around the world gathered around the just cause of the Palestinians,” Shireen pleaded for “a world in which people can live free, with dignity and hope.”

Speaking on behalf of his daughter, Tarek Issawi echoed his daughter’s words: “We, in Palestine, defend the dignity of our people, despite the injustice imposed on us by the colonisation. We are certain that our struggle is just, and thank all the free people of this world for their continuous support.”

Closing the ceremony, the UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a democratic and international order, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas praised Shireen and her family’s “courage and perseverance” and emphasized the essential right of the Palestinian people to self-determination: “All international law experts have recognised the right to self-determination, a binding right, enshrined in the UN Charter, in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The UN General Assembly has recognised the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and this repeatedly. Alas, for the past 67 years, you have suffered expulsion, occupation, humiliation and injustice. But you have kept your honour, your identity and your will to live. Men and women of good will wish you a free and independent State where you will finally be able to exercise your rights and join all the other nations of the world in international solidarity. I hope you get justice and peace in a near future. You deserve it.”

The ceremony attracted over a hundred people at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva and watched by a further 150 people on Alkarama’s live webcast.

For more information on the Laureate, please click here
Or watch this 12min documentary here

Jordan formally submitted Wednesday a draft resolution to the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council on behalf of Palestinians, calling for an end to Israeli occupation by a negotiation process.

The document calls for borders based on 4 June 1967 lines with possible limited land swaps, Palestinian sovereignty, the return of refugees, a shared capital in Jerusalem, total withdrawal of Israeli forces by the end of 2017, and the addressing of other outstanding issues such as water.

The already-weak language of the resolution is expected to be further watered down before the resolution is voted on.

Reiterating its vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,

Reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,

Recalling General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947,

Reaffirming the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and recalling its resolutions 446 (1979), 452 (1979) and 465 (1980), determining, inter alia, that the policies and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,

Affirming the imperative of resolving the problem of the Palestine refugees on the basis of international law and relevant resolutions, including resolution 194 (III), as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative,

Underlining that the Gaza Strip constitutes an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, and calling for a sustainable solution to the situation in the Gaza Strip, including the sustained and regular opening of its border crossings for normal flow of persons and goods, in accordance with international humanitarian law,

Welcoming the important progress in Palestinian state-building efforts recognised by the World Bank and the IMF in 2012 and reiterating its call to all States and international organizations to contribute to the Palestinian institution building programme in preparation for independence,

Reaffirming that a just, lasting and peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved by peaceful means, based on an enduring commitment to mutual recognition, freedom from violence, incitement and terror, and the two-State solution, building on previous agreements and obligations and stressing that the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an agreement that ends the occupation that began in 1967, resolves all permanent status issues as previously defined by the parties, and fulfils the legitimate aspirations of both parties,

Condemning all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism, and reminding all States of their obligations under resolution 1373 (2001),

Recalling the obligation to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians and ensure their protection in situations of armed conflict,

Reaffirming the right of all States in the region to live in peace within secure and internationally recognized borders,

Noting with appreciation the efforts of the United States in 2013/14 to facilitate and advance negotiations between the parties aimed at achieving a final peace settlement,

Aware of its responsibilities to help secure a long-term solution to the conflict,

1. Affirms the urgent need to attain, no later than 12 months after the adoption of this resolution, a just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution that brings an end to the Israeli occupation since 1967 and fulfills the vision of two independent, democratic and prosperous states, Israel and a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security within mutually and internationally recognized borders;

2. Decides that the negotiated solution will be based on the following parameters:

– borders based on 4 June 1967 lines with mutually agreed, limited, equivalent land swaps ;

– security arrangements, including through a third-party presence, that guarantee and respect the sovereignty of a State of Palestine, including through a full and phased withdrawal of Israeli security forces which will end the occupation that began in 1967 over an agreed transition period in a reasonable timeframe, not to exceed the end of 2017, and that ensure the security of both Israel and Palestine through effective border security and by preventing the resurgence of terrorism and effectively addressing security threats, including emerging and vital threats in the region.

– A just and agreed solution to the Palestine refugee question on the basis of Arab Peace Initiative, international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, including resolution 194 (III);

– Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two States which fulfils the legitimate aspirations of both parties and protects freedom of worship;

– an agreed settlement of other outstanding issues, including water;

3. Recognizes that the final status agreement shall put an end to the occupation and an end to all claims and lead to immediate mutual recognition;

4. Affirms that the definition of a plan and schedule for implementing the security arrangements shall be placed at the center of the negotiations within the framework established by this resolution;

5. Looks forward to welcoming Palestine as a full Member State of the United Nations within the timeframe defined in the present resolution;

6. Urges both parties to engage seriously in the work of building trust and to act together in the pursuit of peace by negotiating in good faith and refraining from all acts of incitement and provocative acts or statements, and also calls upon all States and international organizations to support the parties in confidence-building measures and to contribute to an atmosphere conducive to negotiations;

7. Calls upon all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949;

8. Encourages concurrent efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace in the region, which would unlock the full potential of neighborly relations in the Middle East and reaffirms in this regard the importance of the full implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative;

9. Calls for a renewed negotiation framework that ensures the close involvement, alongside the parties, of major stakeholders to help the parties reach an agreement within the established timeframe and implement all aspects of the final status, including through the provision of political support as well as tangible support for post-conflict and peace-building arrangements, and welcomes the proposition to hold an international conference that would launch the negotiations;

10. Calls upon both parties to abstain from any unilateral and illegal actions, including settlement activities, that could undermine the viability of a two-State solution on the basis of the parameters defined in this resolution;

11. Calls for immediate efforts to redress the unsustainable situation in the Gaza Strip, including through the provision of expanded humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population via the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and other United Nations agencies and through serious efforts to address the underlying issues of the crisis, including consolidation of the ceasefire between the parties;

12. Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of this resolution every three months;

The Free Palestine Movement welcomes the decision by the European Union General Court to remove the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) from the EU list of terrorist groups. The court found that placement on the list had been based not on an examination of Hamas’ actions, but on “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet”, implying that Hamas should never have been placed on the list.

We agree. Hamas has never exported its resistance movement internationally. All of its military actions have been directed against the occupiers and oppressors of Palestine. One need not be a supporter of Hamas to recognize the legitimacy of its role in the Palestinian struggle.

The Free Palestine Movement does not support any particular political party in Palestine, but rather the choice of the Palestinian people. We also support the right of Palestinians to resist the occupation and theft of their land and property in all of Palestine, as well as the denial and abuse of their human rights, as provided under international law.

We hope that the court decision represents a step toward universal recognition of the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance against the Zionist usurpers, occupiers and oppressors living on stolen Palestinian land. Indeed, international law and policy must recognize the illegitimacy of the Zionist project and work to end it. We pledge to be a part of that struggle.

Geneva – Dozens of cases in which civilian women in the Gaza Strip were targeted during Israel’s 50-Day “Operation Protective Edge” are documented in a new report issued today by the nonprofit Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights. Titled “Crushing Flowers,” the report revealed that 489 females were killed by Israeli forces – 23 percent of the total number of victims. Likewise, 3,537 females (31.5 percent of the number of wounded) were injured during the 8 July-26 August assault.

“It is clear from the evidence we collected, including numerous eyewitness accounts, that no effective method was used by Israeli troops to avoid civilian casualties, including women and girls, and that excessive force was rampant,” said Ramy Abdu, chair of Euro-Mid. “Meanwhile, many women are now dealing with the trauma of losing large numbers of their families.”

The 30-page report also documented 100 cases of pregnant women directly affected by the attack, with Israel failing to provide protection or safe corridors for hospital transport – in blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In addition, about 23,184 internally displaced people, including 11,314 females, are currently staying at United Nations-run schools and other government schools that are serving as shelters for those whose houses were destroyed or severely damaged.

“Women have endured cruel and inhumane life conditions in shelters that lack the minimum necessities of life. Many women are suffering from depression and stress as a result of living in schools that do not afford them even rudimentary privacy,” said Abdu.

The attacks described in the report violate the Geneva Conventions (including Article 76 of the Additional Protocol, which states that “women shall be the object of special respect “) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,” charged Ihsan Adel, Euro-Mid legal adviser.

Euro-Mid called for a serious and credible investigation into the incidents and urged Israeli authorities to respect the rules of international law, especially those concerning the protection of women during armed conflict, and to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations.

“Hamas leaders come from the people,” senior official Dr Salah Al Bardawil told a huge crowd who took to the streets Friday in Nuseirat camp, Gaza, to celebrate 27 years since the birth of the Hamas movement.

“Hamas does not seek power or government, just Palestine’s liberation,” he said.

Hamas supporters take to the streets in Nuseirat. Photo: Julie Webb-Pullman

Women came out in support. Photo: Ola Al Rantisi

Resistance of the future. Photo: Ola Al Rantisi

Enumerating the many achievements of Hamas over the last 27 years, Bardawil paid special attention to the prisoners’ release, the winning of the 2006 democratic elections, and their refusal to give up on the Palestinian constants, especially the Right of Return to all of Palestine.

“From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free,” he told the crowd.

Photo: Julie Webb-Pullman

Outlining the Hamas strategy for the future, Bardawil stressed that the only choice is resistance, citing its enormous achievements in the recent Israeli offensive.

“Our soldiers have hearts full of belief and the Qu’ran, so they will win,” he said, a message that was much appreciated by the huge contingent from the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades.

Photo: Ola Al Rantisi

He said the second priority is to end division between the various Palestinian factions, while the third is to secure Arabic countries’ support to end the siege of Gaza and accomplish the reconstruction of all damaged and destroyed houses.

Bardawil also called on Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up.

“Sooner or later there will be a third intifada in the West Bank,” he predicted.

One of the images from the “Longest Mural in Gaza” unveiled in Nuseirat today. Photo: Julie Webb-Pullman

Israeli leadership and soldiers came in for a mention, being described as cowards who are frustrated by Palestinians’ commitment and strength despite the immense hardships they face.

Renewing Hamas’ pledge to the martyrs to continue resisting, he concluded,

“On this anniversary of Hamas we ask all Palestinians to remain steadfast – victory is coming!”

According to the latest poll published by the Palestinian Poll Centre 83.3% of Palestinians support taking a case against Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The poll, which was held between October 22 and November 4 2014, consulted a random sample of 1012 people aged over 18 from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Dr Nabil Kocali, who conducted the survey, said that in addition to supporting the pursuit of justice for war crimes committed in Gaza through legal action at the ICC, most Palestinians also approve of the firing of rockets from Gaza in defense against Israel.

“They consider it is a Palestinian right to defend themselves when they are being attacked in their homes,” he said.

Half of those polled considered the current situation in Palestine to be bad, and 77 percent were worried about their personal and family safety. Most had little hope for the future political situation in Palestine.

“Most Palestinians support holding legislative and presidential elections at the current time because they consider it is an important step to end the division among Palestinian parties,” Dr Kocali said.

In response to the question, “To what extent do you agree that the Palestinian resistance achieved its goals in the last offensive?” 35 percent said they achieved their goal to a high level, 41 percent said it was an average achievement, 14 percent said they achieved a low level, 4 percent said they achieved nothing, and 6 percent did not know.

In response to whether they considered the resistance had won, 53 percent said yes while 27 percent said no and 20 percent did not know.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Zahar harshly criticised Fatah in a press conference on Wednesday, accusing it of considering Hamas as an enemy rather than a political rival, and taking part in the siege on Gaza.

“It is responsible for preventing construction materials from entering Gaza despite Israeli permission for them to enter,” he said.

“Fatah is responsible for the tough conditions facing Palestinians, including undermining the resistance, and obstructing reconstruction and reconciliation.”

Al Zahar said Fatah has taken the Palestinian cause back to the beginning, warning that Fatah political policy in the West Bank hampers the resistance there, and serves the aims of the Zionists.

He also denounced security cooperation between The Palestinian Authority and Israel, considering it a national scandal.

“Fatah has shifted its goal from the liberation of Palestine to the protection of Israeli expansion and settlements,” Al Zahar said.

He described Abbas’ visit to the United Nations Security Council as a farce, saying Abbas didn’t have a specific objective and he now realizes it didn’t achieve anything.